THE OFF WORLD COLLECTION (Short, Steamy Science Fiction Romances) (Off-World Series) Read Online Free Page A

Ignoring the clatter, she crossed the room in a few quick steps.
    “What is it? What’s happened?” she asked, her fingers closing urgently over his massive forearms. “Is it your family? Tell me what I can do.”
    It chilled her blood the way he stood stiffly, his hands at his sides, staring at her as if she were a stranger. She searched his dark eyes, and what she saw in their depths made her shiver as if a cold wind had blown into the room.
    “Rohan? What is it? Tell me!”
    “You have betrayed me,” he said, his voice low and grating.
    Shocked, she shook her head in quick denial. “No! I would never do that.”
    He answered with a harsh syllable she’d learned was a curse. Prying her fingers from his arms, he thrust her hands away from him.
    She shook her head again, trying to understand this nightmare.
    “Can you deny you made a pact with your lying Guardians?” he clarified.
    The words hit her like missiles fired from one of his primitive weapons, and she took several shaky steps backward. To give herself something to do, she turned and picked up the fallen chair. Draped across the back was a shawl her grandmother had woven. She had thought she might use it to tease him in their love play; instead, she pulled it protectively around her shoulders and across her breasts.
    It was hard to turn toward him again, hard to face the hurt and anger blazing in his eyes. “Explain what you mean,” she said.
    He gave a harsh laugh. “I’m sure you already know. You signed an agreement. You and the rest of the women who mated with Jalaran men. You were warned to tell us nothing of your technology---nothing of use. The men sent to work with us were instructed to show us only things a child would learn in his first years at one of your schools. Do you deny that?”
    She wanted to look away from his accusing gaze, but she kept her head high. “I---I was told by the Guardians that we should not discuss our technology, that the men you worked with would decide what to teach you.” She swallowed hard. “They said it was because . . . because we couldn’t judge what might be of strategic importance. That we might make a mistake. But it was innocent. We---“
    He cut her off again. “You expect me to believe that?”
    Her mouth was dry, and she had to swallow hard before she could speak. “You taught me never to lie to you.”
    He snorted. “It would seem, however, that I did not teach you honor. I saw your name, Elena, on the piece of paper you signed.”
    Her hands squeezed so tightly that she felt her fingernails digging into her flesh.
    “Yes, I signed the paper thrust in front of me. But it’s not the way you’re making it sound. We were told it was important to go slowly with the project.”
    When he only continued to give her that cold, hard stare, she went on urgently. “Rohan, the Council of Guardians is made up of old, suspicious men and women who have been frightened by years of war with the Jalarans. They have not lived with and come to know you as I have. The Guardians were afraid your leaders might have agreed to the matings to further some hidden agenda of their own---that you might have come here with ulterior motives. But I---that is, some of us have been working to change their opinion.”
    “No.” Rohan spoke the single syllable without hesitation. “You wanted us for breeding stock, to give you children, but you never intended to give us anything in return.”
    “Rohan, let me explain how it was,” she pleaded.
    He shook his proud head. “Do not waste your breath. It is over. We are going home. I will find a true mate among my own kind.”
    The terrible words fell on her like physical blows. She felt dizzy, and she reached behind her, her hand searching for---and finding---the edge of the dressing table to steady herself. Her breath was coming in little gasps, and her skin felt clammy.
    Perhaps he didn’t want to listen, but she had to tell him. “I signed that paper before I ever met you,